


the waitress

by ganymede_elegy



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Mostly Just Nonsense, and some light stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:20:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27566638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ganymede_elegy/pseuds/ganymede_elegy
Summary: He's fallen in love with the girl across the street.God, that sounds so pathetic, like he's some kid in high school pining for the girl who lives next door. But he's not in high school and the girl isn't either (which, thank god, because that would be sort of illegal, in a creepy-pedophile-stalker kind of way). As it is, he's already got creepy stalker covered.He can see her through the windows and he watches her..or: Jon has a crush on the waitress across the street and has zero chill
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Comments: 32
Kudos: 186





	the waitress

He's fallen in love with the girl across the street.

God, that sounds so pathetic, like he's some kid in high school pining for the girl who lives next door. But he's not in high school and the girl isn't either (which, thank god, because that would be sort of illegal, in a _creepy-pedophile-stalker_ kind of way). As it is, he's already got _creepy stalker_ covered.

He can see her through the windows and he watches her.

( _See? Creepy, right?_ )

But it's not like he's watching her at _home_ or anything. His office is on the third floor and when he'd first gotten the promotion, he hadn't thought anything of the floor to ceiling windows that make up a whole side of the room. Now he's grateful for them, they provide a good view of the city.

And her.

She works at the cafe across the street and most days he can delude himself into thinking he only turns around occasionally to see her (the reality is that he spends half his day twisted around in his chair, hoping to catch a glimpse of her). He can't see _in_ to the café, but he can see when she comes to clean the windows or when, in the summer, people sit at the outside tables. He also likes the summer because her black pants and white sweaters become black shorts and white t-shirts (and when it’s really hot, white tank tops).

Her hair is red and shines in the sun and he thinks maybe that's what caught his eye in the first place. She styles it differently every day, as if she's making up for the monotony of her uniform by changing her hair. Most of the other waitresses there just throw their hair up in a ponytail, but she changes it up. It makes her stand out and he likes to think that in her real life, she stands out, too.

He has no idea what she's like in real life, he's never talked to her, he doesn't even know her name. In his head he calls her _The Waitress_ , but honestly he tries not to do that too much because it makes him feel like Charlie from _It's Always Sunny_ and he really doesn't want to be _that_ crazy.

Today she has her hair in twin French braids and he thinks she looks adorable in her little black shorts and white Keds and her apron.

Sometimes he wonders how she’s never seen him staring down at her. He’s three floors up, so it makes a sort of sense that she wouldn’t look up at a bunch of office windows. Or maybe people on the street can’t see in? Maybe it’s _that_ type of glass, he doesn’t know (maybe he should check that out some time, but honestly, he avoids that side of the building).

* * *

He doesn't tell anyone about his obsession, not even Sam.

Sam is his best friend, he's told Sam things he's never told anyone else in his whole life, but for some reason, he can't tell him about _her_.

They had met in college and bonded over their mutual hatred for their rich asshole dads (ok, maybe not the healthiest way to start a friendship, but it worked). Sam was never _man_ enough for his dad and Jon's dad knocked his mom up and then pretended neither of them existed when he went back to his real wife and kids.

(“At least they paid for our college,” Sam used to joke.)

After college, after mom died, he and Sam moved south to the city along with Sam's girlfriend. He hasn't spoken to his dad in years at this point, Sam and Gilly are who he spends holidays with. It's Sam and Gilly's son that he spoils, not his half sister's kids who he's never even met. _Sam and Gilly_ are his family.

And yet, he can't manage to tell Sam this one secret.

* * *

She laughs a lot and he finds himself unconsciously smiling along.

She doesn't work on Wednesdays and it's such a habit at this point that he still ends up turning around to look out, only to catch himself. If she ever isn't there on a day she's supposed to be, he worries about her (and then worries about himself, he really should not be this attached to a stranger). Sometimes he worries what would happen if she ever quit the café.

It's not like he even has trouble with women. He's fine at it. He had a friend in college, Theon, that used to grumble about his ability to pick up women without really trying ( _you just sit there and pout and girls eat it up_ ).

And it's not like his little crush stops him from doing things – he goes out on dates, he hangs out with his friends, he even plays rugby on the weekends. He's good at his job and he gets his work done, he just manages to do it while turned around in his chair half the day. He's a normal person.

(That's a lie. Sometimes when he's out on dates, he feels guilty, like he's betraying her. But she doesn't even know he exists and he's _sure_ he's going crazy.)

* * *

Sometimes he wishes he could get the courage to go to the café. Even if he doesn't have the courage to introduce himself to her, she'd at least _see_ him and he would exist.

But whenever his coworkers ask where he wants to go for lunch, he never suggests _La Petit Colombe_.

He knows he could, he knows his coworkers would never think twice about him suggesting the café across the street. Or he could stop there in the mornings and get coffee, like a lot of people in the office do. It would be normal. Not suspicious at all.

* * *

“Jon,” Grenn says from the doorway and he spins around in his chair, his heart hammering wildly for a brief moment, but Green doesn't seem to have noticed that he'd been staring out the window. “I think kids got out of school early today and guess where they all are?”

“Starbucks?” he guesses from the lack of coffee in Grenn's hand.

“I'm so pissed. What is it with highschoolers and their goddamn frappuccinos?”

Jon just shrugs and says nothing about _Grenn_ and his frappuccinos.

“Anyway,” Grenn continues in a huff, “it's packed so we're headed to that café across the street if you wanna come.”

He manages not to make any suspicious twitches and he reassures himself that there is no way that this is a prank and before he has time to second guess himself, he says yes.

* * *

On the way down the elevator, they talk about the new security update and an issue they're having with the firewalls blocking websites people in the office need access to. He nods along, but in all honesty, he’s barely listening. He keeps running scenarios in his head. _Talk to her? Ignore her? Smile?_ He’s done this a million times, if he’s willing to admit it.

(Once, while sitting through a particularly boring lecture on fire safety in the workplace, he ran through an entire scenario where he and The Waitress got married and had three kids and lived next door to Sam and Gilly. The worst part is, on their wedding day, the officiant had called her ‘Waitress’.)

When they get there, she’s talking to an elderly couple sitting outside and she doesn’t even look up at them. It makes him feel a little weird and he realizes that he really _was_ expecting her to look at him and smile. It’s then that he realizes how deeply he’s into this and she has no idea he even exists.

He’s known it before, but it’s never _really_ hit him and it makes him more than a little depressed.

As they stand in line (it’s a surprisingly busy little café), he manages to glance her way and it lifts his mood a little when he doesn’t see a wedding ring. Three floors up is enough to give him a general look, but he can’t make out details like a ring.

She’s even prettier close up. Her eyes are bright blue and her Keds are sparkling clean and today her hair is up in a ponytail, pins holding back what looks like bangs that she's trying to grow out (he remembers Ygritte doing this in high school, how she complained for months about it).

He congratulates himself for being sneaky about this, because no one notices him watching her and he’s fully in control of himself when he reaches the counter and orders his large black coffee without missing a beat.

While he’s waiting off to the side for Grenn and Pyp to get their more complicated drinks, she goes behind the counter to get the old couple their food. He notes that she and the girl at the register seem to be friends.

“The usual?” Girl That Isn’t Her asks, nodding over at the elderly couple.

“Always,” Waitress says and her voice is more musical than he thought it would be and he tries to adjust it in his head.

“I think Mr. Walsh has a crush on you,” Girl That Isn’t Her teases as she takes Pyp's money.

“And why wouldn’t he?” Waitress sighs dramatically, pouring coffee into a mug. “I give him food while wearing short shorts.”

Girl That Isn’t Her laughs and starts to make Pyp's drink.

The Waitress is less than five steps away and he stares at the menu so he doesn’t stare at her.

“Excuse me,” Waitress says and he takes his eyes from the menu and steps aside, managing not to turn bright red because he’d been blocking her exit.

“Sorry,” he says and she smiles and moves off.

It’s not quite a conversation, but he’s proud of himself for at least remembering how to speak.

* * *

It’s not until he gets back to the office that he realizes he didn’t look at her nametag.

He’d had plenty of opportunities and you’d think it’d be the first thing he’d do, but he just… didn’t.

(And really, there’s a part of him that realizes that if he actually learns her name, that means she’s a _person_ and not just a waitress and that makes the stalking a million times creepier.)

The coffee isn’t Starbucks-strong, but he likes it and apparently Grenn does, too, because he suggests going there more often.

* * *

There was one time when he saw her in something that wasn’t her uniform.

He assumes she went in to get a paycheck or something, but it had been a Wednesday and he’d been doing that thing where he automatically checks out his window every five minutes, even though he knows she isn’t there.

She’d been walking out of the café and he’d stopped his typing and turned to watch her. She’d been wearing normal-people clothes and talking on her phone and in that moment, he felt like the biggest jackass in the entire world.

* * *

It’s a week later when Grenn and Pyp suggest they go to _Le Petite Colombe_ for lunch. He can’t think of a single reason not to go, so he does and they sit at one of the outside tables.

(He looks up at his building and his heart jumps uncomfortably when he realizes that anyone on the street _can_ see into his office. Should he invest in blinds?)

They read their menus and he mentally prepares himself for this. He runs the conversation through his head, tells himself to keep his voice calm like he did last week.

When another waitress comes to ask them what they want, he can’t tell if he’s relieved or not. On one hand, he wants the excuse to stare at her, but on the other, he’d rather not know her name and really, there’s no way she wouldn’t introduce herself.

“Hi, I’m Myranda,” Waitress That Isn’t Her says, “can I get you something to drink?”

The Waitress is inside, cleaning the coffee machine and he doesn’t stare as he orders.

* * *

Their date is going well and he congratulates himself on still being a functional human being.

Val from Marketing is great. She’s smart and pretty and she reminds him slightly of Ygritte when she laughs.

“I never thought you’d ask me out,” Val says after she takes a sip of wine. “I mean, we all joke about the hot IT guy, but the only time I see you is in the break room.”

“How do you know I don’t go out of my way to run into you?” he jokes and immediately regrets it. But she laughs and looks flattered and that makes him pause for a moment.

“You’re adorable,” she mutters and he wonders for a second if The Waitress would go with _adorable_ or _creepy._

He looks over at Val and jumps straight into the deep end.

“But wouldn’t that be like stalking?” he asks, trying to make himself stop, but he can’t.

“What? Liking someone and going out of your way to see them? Everyone does that.”

He digests this and then asks her if it’s stalking if you don’t even know the person’s name.

* * *

Little Sam's fifth birthday is in the dead of summer and they have a party that _Uncle Jon_ is invited to. He watches Little Sam and the other five year olds run around screaming and playing tag as he and the other adults all stand around the grill. Sam wears an apron that says _kiss the cook_ which Gilly does, often.

None of Sam or Gilly's family are here, just their friends. None of them really speak to their families anymore and so they spend their holidays together and Jon feels comfortable here in a way he hasn't felt since his mom died (he's always aware, though, that he's not _really_ family. Sam and Gilly are married now and they have a son and though Jon is always invited and Little Sam calls him Uncle Jon, he sometimes feels like he's intruding on _their_ family, not like he's actually a part of it).

He goes inside for a beer later on and (in a moment of weakness that he blames on one of these bouts of loneliness), he tells Gilly about The Waitress as she's placing candles in the cake.

When Gilly laughs at him, it’s not a mean laugh and he feels the slightest bit saner. But just in case, he tells her everything, how deep it goes. How sometimes, when he’s bored, he plots out his life with The Waitress.

“Jon,” she says, still smiling broadly. “Everyone plans out their lives. If you had a steady girlfriend, you’d probably put her into them. But you don’t, so it makes sense you’d substitute in a pretty girl that works at the café across from your work.”

She makes it sound so normal that for a moment, he doubts that this conversation is even real (because what if it’s just another one of his fantasy scenarios? But the lack of The Waitress in it makes him realize it's not).

Gilly shakes her head and lights the candles and takes the cake outside to a ravenous pack of five year olds.

* * *

On Monday, he decides to take Gilly's advice and goes to get his morning coffee.

He’s waited until the rush is over before going, so she’s not busy when he walks in. She’s leaning against the counter and Girl That Isn’t Her must be in the back doing something because she’s alone. There are a couple people sitting at the tables, but they don’t pay any attention to him as he walks up.

“Hi,” he says.

She looks at him and smiles.

“Hi.” For a brief moment he allows himself to think they’re having an actual conversation before she asks, “what can I get for you?”

The question shakes him for a second, but he takes a deep breath and remembers Gilly's advice and decides that he’s going to work up to a conversation with her today.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm having some writers block with my other WIP and that one puts me in my feels a lot so I figured I'd try to write something lighter and came up with... this. I don't know what this is and I'm sorry our girl Sansa wasn't in it as much as you were probably expecting, but I had too much fun writing stalker!Jon.


End file.
